


light, dark and the gloom in between

by sarcastic_space_muffin



Category: Voltron - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Help, I've never done this before, Other, Voltron, dark but not that dark..... maybe, this is the first fic i've posted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-10 05:01:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13495466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_space_muffin/pseuds/sarcastic_space_muffin
Summary: a mission goes badly wrong and the smallest paladin is missing...(set pre season 4)





	1. away

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is my first fic, well sort of, the first fic I wrote down, and the first I've posted. I wrote it before season 4 so obviously it deviates quite drastically from canon, but I'm a bit too lazy to rewrite it and anyway I want to write Matt and Pidge's reunion my way.... maybe.... if it gets to that point.....  
> So yeah, I hope you enjoy it, constructive criticism is welcome! Please tell me if I spelt something wrong! I haven't had my friend read it through! (also i think i change tenses randomly! I don't mean to but it's an annoying habit, I'll try and fix most of it)>^.^<

Pidge dive-bombed the ship, her lion purred happily in her head, making her shudder with pleasant chills. She grinned as Lance whooped loudly into the coms,  
“Cool it Lance,” Shiro sighed, “we haven’t won yet!” but even he sounded relaxed and confident.  
“Oh come on we’ve basically wo…” Pidge didn’t hear the rest, Green suddenly convulsed, sending Pidge tumbling onto the floor. She yelped in pained surprise, “Pidge?!” Keith sounded worried, how bad was it? It certainly hurt, she heaved herself back into the chair, “You ok girl?” she asked quietly, Green let out a moan of protest, this wasn’t good. She brought her screens up, carefully swivelling Green round to face the ship which shot her, she let out a gasp of surprise; this isn’t a drone fighter, this is a ship a proper gargantuan commanding ship, how had she not seen it? How had the others not seen it?  
Its ion cannon was already powering up for another shot, how had she survived just one?  
No time to contemplate her fortune, just move she thought.  
Too late. The ray beamed towards her. She furiously pulled the acceleration. Green tried, heaving herself as fast as her wounded state would allow. The others were to far away. Somebody was yelling. She saw Red diving towards her.  
Purple flooded her vision…. Green thrashed, spasming dangerously…. Pidge felt herself fall to the floor…. She curled into a ball, waiting for it to end.  
She couldn’t hear, she couldn’t see, all she could feel were the shockwaves of pain quivering through her and Green’s yowls of pain splintering in her head.

The explosion was impossible. The lions blasting back in the billowing cloud. All Hunk could think was Pidge, Pidge had been at the centre of that. Tiny fiery Pidge, the girl who new more about computers than pop-culture and makeup, the girl who although unbelievably smart didn’t actually know whom Beyonce was. If the blast had hit them this hard what could it have done to Pidge…

Keith stared helplessly at the retreating clouds dust and debris, he had tried, he’d pushed Red to her top speed to try and reach his small friend in time…  
It hadn’t been enough. He could feel the waves of remorse and anger rolling off Red. She was fuming. Red loved the smallest lion and her curious little paladin; and anyone who hurt Pidge would feel the full fury of Voltron. 

Lance gaped, just gaped at the mass of wreckage, that was his friend. It didn’t compute. Blue rumbled softly, it was, for once, no comfort. His eyes stung his vision fogging. And the burning water tumbled down his chin into his lap. He couldn’t make a sound. He could barely breathe. That was his friend…

Shiro almost choked, he couldn’t, he just couldn’t; he couldn’t lose his last little sarcastic Holt. He’d lost her father, and then her brother. Only to find him again in Pidge, who, stubborn as she was, utterly refused to give up hoping, to give up trying at least. And this, this was worse. At least with the others there was hope…  
This? This was final. She was gone. Gone forever…

The paladins searched the wreckage for hours; there was nothing, not a single chip of green metal, not a pair of cracked glasses. And no body, this was the worst part. Not only was Pidge dead but they couldn’t even say goodbye properly.  
“What did we do for the universe to reward us with this?” Keith had said, the first one to talk at all. No one answered. There was no need.  
Nothing could be horrible enough to deserve this…


	2. conscious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the second chapter.... if you read it you'll find out what happens..... I'm sorry I don't know how to write a summary >^.^<

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's better, well in my opinion anyway.... it has less weird thought bubbly thingys, yeah I might go back and change those, I'm not sure I like them....

The pain was nauseating, she found for the second time that couldn’t breathe, her eyelids felt as though they were smelted together. Pulling them apart felt as though she were dragging them off the sea floor. Her vision was blurred, and flashes of sickly yellow and dull purple spotted the image. She tried to reach up to check if she still wore her glasses (it wasn’t as though she actually needed them to see, they were part of her disguise, but by now she was used to the glassy view of the world.) but she found hot cuffs of glowing violet bound her hands. She wriggled only to find that her feet also were cuffed, and not only that but the cuffs were linked to chains in the floor.  
What had happened? She only remembered ugly purple light and an explosion, but then again that could be an old memory; there were lots of battles with purple Galra ships and explosions.  
But if she had been in a battle that might explain her predicament.  
A door slid open somewhere to the left of her behind her head some way. She tried to crane her neck to see only to be rewarded with a kick in the neck. She didn’t do her captor the satisfaction of yelping. There was a deep chuckle, “Obstinate aren’t we?” he growled, Pidge scowled despite the fact that he couldn’t see.  
“I don’t submit to murderers!” Pidge spat with clear contempt, he kicked her hard in the ribs, “Do tell me,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “do you enjoy booting chained, wounded prisoners?” he grabbed her by her collar, lifting her up so she dangled a couple of feet from the ground. She found herself facing one of the hooded warlocks; his mask was pale and ghostly in the dim light, its hooked edge reminded eerily of the strange beaked masks mediaeval physicians wore during the plague. Those masks were practically a death sentence. The resemblance wasn’t reassuring.  
The glinting darkness beneath the angular slits seemed to measure her with a sneering gaze. She kicked out, she may have been small but her skinny limbs were sharp with bones. He grunted in pain, but didn’t let go. “Vile little she daemon!” He snarled, and then in a nauseatingly smug tone, “We’ll have to do something about that temper.” He put a hand to her temple, she squirmed, trying to dislodge his hand, it was no use. She felt a scythe of pain cut through her skull, he swung her over his shoulder, she was having trouble staying conscious and her whole body throbbed in protest. Her eyes fluttered shut.  
She hung four feet from the ground, suspended by her wrists from a wrack like metal board. Her head was encased in a thick metal band, as were her ankles and arms. A floating tray of shining objects hovered in the gloom beside her. She was alone in the shadows, the only light emanating from the glowing door panel and the obnoxious purple insignia that illuminated one wall. She was only partially aware of the droning pain spreading in a ribbon across her temples, she was beginning to think she was being stupid and that this was what heads were meant to feel like, as, for the life of her, she could not remember a time when her head hadn’t ached. Her lion should’ve laughed, or growled or something in reaction to this thought, but she couldn’t feel green’s energy, she couldn’t feel anything. She began to panic, yelling through her scrambled thoughts and bizarre dreamland, trying desperately to reach out to her lion… nothing. She was completely alone. It was such an alien sensation; for months now she had never been alone, always there was someone, one of the boys, Allura, Coran, the mice! And even when the others weren’t there, she could always feel Green, sleeping, chatting, growling, purring, scolding her sarcastic paladin! But now she was gone. Just gone… was she dead?! Was she herself dead? She couldn’t be sleeping; even in the chryopods Green would still loiter anxiously around her head, just in case. Where was she!  
The door slid open, Pidge squinted in the rush of light, and wondered vaguely where her helmet was. The tall-cloaked figure locked the door behind them.  
They turned with a snarling grin towards Pidge. Haggar. She strode towards Pidge her eyes glowing hungry gold.  
“What,” she rasped; “do you suppose, your little friends, will pay to get you back?” she cackled as Pidge’s face twisted involuntarily into an expression of horror, “Oh don’t worry, we’ll torture you a little first, they’ll be far more desperate when they see you broken and bleeding at Lord Zarkon’s feet!” another surge of cackling crackled in Pidge’s ears.  
“I will never lie at Zarkon’s stinking feet!” she spat, channelling her all of her lion’s furious hisses from every battle she had ever fought, (Green would’ve been proud.)  
Haggar’s smirk twisted into a sneer, she strode to a control panel that Pidge had failed to notice in the gloom. Now it glowed to life.  
Haggar pressed a button.  
The pain was incredible. It pumped like blood through her every atom. She threw her head back and screamed, she no longer cared if this disgusting demon woman saw her hurting, it was too much, but… it would never be enough, not to make her bow to Zarkon, not to make her betray Voltron, and never to make her betray her friends. She sobbed, hot rivers falling off her chin.  
“that my sweet, fragile human girl was but a taste, now tell me young paladin, where is your lion?” Haggar snarled,  
“You don’t have her?!” Pidge couldn’t help it, she silently cursed her lack of self-control, Haggar raised an angry eyebrow,  
“And apparently neither do you,” she drawled, “Well, I’m surprised,” Pidge frowned slightly, “I thought you’d have some regard for your own life.” The shockwave sent another scream to the paladin’s lips “I’M NOT LYING!” she screamed, as her body quivered and thrashed.  
“No perhaps not…”Haggar smiled coolly, “Do you have a use? I suppose you’re sort of small and furry, a pet perhaps?” Pidge pursed her lips in a fashion that would’ve made Allura proud.  
“No, I’ve seen the footage, you’re a little, hmm… what’s that human expression, ahh yes, a little smartass, aren’t you, quite the clever one, with your viruses and your hacking, but you leave a strange trail don’t you?” Pidge was barely conscious; she wasn’t listening any more, but this? “What does a paladin of Voltron want with prison records?” her heart stopped, her body froze up, and her tears turned to ice.  
“Of course I will find out eventually, it’s only a matter of whether you tell me or I’m forced to find out for myself…” Pidge wasn’t aware of the biting pain anymore, she could only feel the terror in her own eyes, Haggar stepped towards her and whispered, “Perfect…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like it!>^.^< I think I change tenses in this one, but it's late and I have to get up early tomorrow so I'll check later ;P (also there are two notes? one's from the previous chapter.... yeah I don't know how to get rid of it....)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I like this chapter, but as the fic isn't fantastic I figure the least I can do is upload new chapters? Sorry it's been a while, I hope you like it!  
> (feel free to give constructive criticism, or correct mistakes!)

Keith was unresponsive, he refused to come out of his room, well that wasn’t exactly true, he just wasn’t coming out and didn’t react when the others asked him to, Coran had decided that that didn’t count as refusal.   
Lance was still flying out there somewhere, desperately searching for their tiny friend. He couldn’t accept it; he wouldn’t accept it, not yet, not ever even…  
Hunk didn’t come near the others, and fled often to Pidge’s lab/ hangar trying franticly to find some use for her half finished projects, and staying up long into the night on her computer trying to finish decoding Galra Intel, neither he nor the others really knew what he was searching for, but still he searched, searched for anything, searched for her family, searched for her, searched for something to help, to hope for again…   
Allura was distraught, Shiro had never seen her so angry, Coran had tried asking if he could help and in reply she had screamed “SHE WAS JUST A CHILD! A CHILD WITH FAMILY!” before bursting into tears and locking the control room door.  
Coran was holding them together, he cried randomly, but apart from that he fed everyone, dragged them back to bed at midnight and most importantly he comforted everyone even if it meant staying up all night, and yet inside he was screaming, screaming wretchedly, number five was his friend, his helper, she was the one who, despite the cultural gaps, managed to keep easily up with his engineering and even learnt Altean, just because she was curious to read and know everything! But he helped the others; she wouldn’t have wanted them to be hurting.  
Shiro felt dead inside, he couldn’t help his team and he couldn’t help himself. He’d promised her they’d find her family, now she couldn’t, and even if Shiro found them… he’d have to tell them… tell them she was dead… it didn’t feel real, Pidge was indestructible, she wouldn’t just leave, not knowing her family might still be out there. But that was the thing about death, it didn’t care if you still had life left to live, it didn’t care if you were an incredible sarcastic little minefield, it took you anyway. And Allura was right Pidge was only a kid, yeah maybe she was mature and brave and strong, but she was just a child. He wasn’t sure he could face the other Holts, even if they found them again. Coran had asked if they wanted to go back to earth, to give her mother the news, to give Pidge a proper funeral. No one had answered, none of them could face going home, let alone to Pidge’s home, knowing it was the one place Pidge wanted to go back to more than anything, they couldn’t do it without her.

There was a yell over the coms. It was bizarre in the echoing silence that had consumed the last quintants. “Get to Blue’s hangar! NOW!” Lance’s voice echoed through the castle, Shiro rose from his lion’s seat, pat her comfortingly and hurries out.  
He arrives at the same time as Hunk and Keith; Hunk it appears had to, quite literally, drag Keith here by the ears. Keith, when released, spins round and jabs Hunk hard in the stomach with a sharp elbow. Shiro intervenes quickly grabbing Keith by his collar and walking him a few feet away. Allura enters silently, her long silvery gown crumpled into a mass of creases, her thick snowy hair pulled back into a greasy ponytail. Coran hurried in after, clothes covered in grease and dust, (he’d been doing Pidge’s usual repair jobs and really wasn’t the right size for them.)  
There was a sweeping gust of cold as the inner airlock opened, Blue stood there… Green clutched by the scruff in her mouth.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter because I kind of cut the other one short, so, sorry but I actually quite like this bit!  
> Enjoy!>^.^<

Keith choked, Green's body was blackened and marred, huge gashes spread down the metal of her sides, one golden eye was shattered and dark, and her side was open to see her glowing green wires.  
“Pidge?” Keith asked, barely daring to breathe,  
“I tried calling her through the coms,” Lance answered, “no response, but” he added quickly, “Green’s pretty beat up, maybe her coms aren’t working?” Lance sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than anything else, “I didn’t want to risk releasing any stored oxygen, just in case…” He went on, Keith couldn’t help thinking that if Pidge couldn’t even fix the coms, then she was either unconscious or… no he couldn’t let that be an option, she was alive, she had to be! They couldn’t find her lion, only to find her limp dead body. He shuddered at the thought.  
Green’s jaw opened halfway before cranking to a stop. Keith, as the smallest of the six, slipped through first, he scrambled up to the cabin… it was a wreck, screens were smashed, pieces of glass littering the floor, wires spilled out from hatches, the leathery fabric of the pilot’s seat was torn and jammed with debris. And there was blood; dark stains of rusty scarlet that smeared across the floor to where he stood in the doorway.  
He heard a gagging gasp behind him. Hunk stood, horror struck, behind him, the others filed in behind. Shiro stepped past him, bending down to pick something up from the corner.  
Her helmet, the visor was shattered into a web of pale blue fragments, the cracks ran with blood, a few sharp pieces of blue glass skittered to the floor.  
“She’s gone?” Lance’s voice cracked, he turned burying his face into Keith’s shoulder, tears welled in Keith’s eyes, Hunk clung to the cold metal wall trying not to fall, Allura flew gasping from the hangar, Coran stood silent and motionless in the doorway, Shiro’s tears spilled onto the bloodied glass of the helmet…

**Author's Note:**

> ummm, yeah hope you liked it! I don't really like some of it but, eh like I said I'm lazy!  
> have a nice day!>^.^< (also if you think of a better name please tell me, it's an awful name!)


End file.
